Not So Famous…

Robert Jordan (RJ) was the author of the Wheel of Time series of fantasy books. I say “was”, of course, because he passed away last year after a fight with amyloidosis, which was immensely sad.  It was sad both because it was the passing of a legend, and also because he passed before he could finish the final book (which has become three books in the successor’s hands) in his epic saga, the Wheel of Time.  But, as they say, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

Ultimately, however, the title of my post is meant to foreshadow its content.  Apart from that brief explanation of his death, I won’t mention it again.  I would like to mention that Robert Jordan was a true master of epic fantasy.

First off, in this post, I’m not meaning to slight Tolkien or his fans.  Tolkien certainly is a master of high fantasy, but it’s easy to see that Tolkien’s skills lay in perhaps a different direction than RJ’s.  Tolkient created languages first, and then told the stories to explain the languages. He created vast histories, which he detailed in his notes.  For all of that, however, his writing remained mostly dry-ish, reading in many places like a history book, which it almost is, considering all the work that went into his books in that regard.  And while Jordan’s world definitely has something on the order of 9,000+ years of history behind it, it is the organic creation of various people groups that really sets Jordan’s work apart in my mind.

In anticipation of the first of the final trilogy in the series coming out in a few days, I have begun re-reading the entire Wheel of Time (WoT) series, beginning with the prequel novel, A New Spring. In beginning this epic journey, I quickly remembered what held my attention with Jordan’s writing, and it wasn’t always thr story.

Jordan weaves mythology, history, and legend into his works to give them some of that epic scope that he succeeded in creating. Other authors have done this arguably more or less successfully than Jordan, but I don’t feel that this kind of storytelling is where he succeeds. The various characters have relationships with powerful mythological figures that tell us something of their purpose and goals in the series, but it’s not what kept me reading through 12 books.

Speaking of the characters, they’re certainly interesting, with flaws and strengths that are mostly believable.  However, while there is some character development throughout the series, there is also a great deal of repetition in terms of phrases and sayings they each (over)use.  I’m not saying there’s little character development…it’s just that there are other authors who have accomplished this more significantly in their works, and it is not what has captured my attention for so long.

The story itself is grand and compelling.  But any story can lose its luster when you’re talking a dozen books.  There were books where Jordan’s story seemed to lose its way.  It was as though it had gotten too big for its britches…too epic.  In order to continue the telling of a story that spanned the whole of his known world, he had to tell pieces of the story about characters who were not what most of us considered the “main characters”.  At the very least, in order to get some sense of the story moving along, he had to leave certain main characters for an entire book in one case.  When he had to start doing some of this, getting through his books became a little more tedious.  For me, a low point was the book or two after A Crown of Swords.  The increasingly longer wait between books certainly didn’t help. But while the story is compelling, and I want to know how it ends, I couldn’t class Jordan as the best storyteller of his age.  This is all opinion, of course, and I’m sure there are those who would disagree, but I would say that enjoying books is a very personal activity, and I do not compel anyone else to share my opinion in their heart of hearts.

So what, if not story, characters, or research, would cause me to list Jordan as a master?  His building of his world.  When I came back to this series, I was immediately struck with the fact that I could tell the ethnicity of most characters he was writing based on a simple description of how they spoke, how they were dressed, or how they were otherwise adorned.  Jordan did not have to say something as easy as “A man, obviously from Illian, approached me an began to speak.”  It’s simple enough to use phrases like that, of course.  But it seems that Jordan asked himself how he would recognize someone from a different culture, and developed cultures that were recognizable from speech or dress; and did a darn good job of it.  For example:

As I approached the dock, a large man with a beard that left his upper lip bare barred my way.

Now, anyone who has read enough of Jordan’s work would recognize that man as an Illianer from the beard.  (Also his proximity to ships, which Illianers seem more than fond of.  Had he spoken, he might have said something to the effect of, “Where do ye be going?”  That manner of speech smacks heavily of Illian.) See a man wearing a veil that doesn’t quite conceal thick bushy, mustaches?  You’re looking at a Taraboner.  A woman wearing a clinging silk dress that manages not to reveal anything while actually emphasizing everything underneath?  She’s from Arad Doman.  Topknots, bells in hair and on clothes, and braided cords looped over the head indicate men from the Borderlands, specifically Shienar, Arafel, and long-dead Malkier respectively. Dark skin with visible tattoos, and you are in the presence of one of the Atha’an Miere, or Sea Folk.  In addition to fads and dress, Jordan’s use of commonalities in language and prejudices will also reveal the ethnic origins of any character in his stories.

Now, why does this make him a master?  Well, in fantasy, fantastic races are the norm.  Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Trolls are common.  Emphasizing the differences in race is not even necessary.  If someone says “there’s an orc”, there’s no question as to what gave the speaker that impression.  The same holds true for any of the other races.  Jordan’s world, however, is a world almost entirely dominated by humans.  There are ogier (good guys), trollocs, and myrddraal (both bad), but none of them are exactly common.  Yet Jordan’s humans are from many nations, and distinguishing between them is a very important aspect of his storytelling, and helps keep the human dominated landscape from going stale. What’s more, power struggles of the nobility and various racial preferences and enmities are also important in certain story arcs.  Understanding that Tairen nobility are pretty dismissive of their commoners can become important to understanding Tairen character motivations and the like.

I feel Robert Jordan has created a political world with enough depth that I feel like I have spent some time there. While I may not be a native to Randland, as it is often called, I definitely understand its people in a way that I have never understood the people of any other world flowing from an author’s pen. I’m looking forward to the release of the next book, The Gathering Storm, and the eventual conclusion of this most epic story.

My uncle has a country place
that no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm
before the Motor Law.

And on Sundays I elude the Eyes,
and hop the turbine freight
to far outside the Wire
where my white-haired uncle waits.

Jump to the ground
as the turbo slows across the Borderline.
Run like the wind
as excitement shivers up and down my spine.

Down in his barn
my uncle preserved for me an old machine
for fifty-odd years.
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream.

I strip away the old debris
that hides the shining car.
A brilliant red Barchetta
from a better, vanished time.

I fire up the willing engine
responding with a roar.
Tires spitting gravel
I commit my weekly crime.

Wind;
In my hair;
Shifting and drifting;
Mechanical music;
Adrenaline surge!

Well-weathered leather;
Hot metal and oil;
The scented country air.
Sunlight on chrome;
The blur of the landscape;
Every nerve aware.

Suddenly ahead of me,
Across the mountainside.
A gleaming alloy air car
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide

I spin around with shrieking tires
To run the deadly race.
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase.

Drive like the wind
Straining the limits of machine and man
Laughing out loud with fear and hope
I’ve got a desperate plan.

At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded at the riverside.
Race back to the farm
To dream with my uncle at the fireside.
– Rush, Red Barchetta from the album, Moving Pictures. (1981)
Based on the short story A Nice Morning Drive, by Richard S. Foster. (1973)

We are attempting to watch all 3 extended versions of the Lord of the Rings this weekend.  :)

I’ll let you know how well we fare.  We’re in the middle of the Fellowship of the Ring at the moment.  ;)

Those of us who have been reading the Wheel of Time series for any length of time know that Robert Jordan has been fighting against a rare blood disease called amyloidosis for over a year.  His doctors didn’t give him very long, but he vowed to fight it for as long as the Lord would give him to do so.

The last post on his blog at Dragonmount, a Wheel of Time fansite, indicated that he was doing well, and that rumors of a priest administering last rites to him were false, and that he’s tired, but aside from that, he was doing well. He had been receiving his priest at his home on a weekly basis to administer the Lord’s Supper to him.  Jordan professed faith in Jesus Christ as a member of an Episcopalian congregation in South Carolina. Our hope is that he is in a better place.

Please pray for those close to Jordan, like his wife Harriett and his brother (either in spirit or in truth) Wilson.

As the news stories have all been reporting, he was working on the 12th volume of Wheel of Time.  What I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere is that A Memory of Light (the name of the book) was to be the last in the series, which has been in existence since Jordan published Eye of the Word in 1990.  17 years is a long time to wait for a series to be completed, and we all wondered if the Lord would give him the time to finish the series. Looks like the answer to that is “no”.

For fans who did not follow his blog very closely, I will report that last week, Wilson posted on the blog that Robert Jordan spent 2 and a half hours telling him and Harriett ALL THE DETAILS of how the series was to end.  I thought it was a strange thing at the time, because he’d always played his cards so close to the vest.  The story will end, then, if not how we would have liked it to have ended.

RIP, Robert Jordan (real name, James Oliver Rigney, Jr.).  Your storytelling will be missed.

In the tradition of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, I have double-titled this post. It made me happy.

Man, this Friday couldn’t come soon enough. I’ve had a lot going on this week, and it’s just made me more and more tired.  I’m sure staying up until midnight almost every night reading Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars series isn’t really helping, but I can’t help it.  I’ve got a lot of books on my to-read list, and I’m not getting through them fast enough. (Never thought I’d say that.)

Yesterday was nice for a couple reasons. To begin with, because I worked for 3 hours from home on Wednesday, I was able to get off work a couple hours early and come home to my beautiful wife.  Kim had planned for us to go to Yesterday’s Books, which is always a fun trip.

Yesterday’s Books is a used bookstore, which will take some books in exchange for cash or store credit.  They often have out of print books and the like, which can be difficult to find elsewhere. In this particular instance, Kim had convinced me to get rid of some books.  Many of you know that I am quite the packrat when it comes to…well…anything. Books are no exception; I hate to throw them away! These books were of the happy-clappy theology variety, which I had purchased long ago. I knew I’d never read through them again, as I felt their theological worth was fairly low, considering the wealth of writings from the Reformers or early church fathers. The end result was that we had books to turn in…a fairly sizeable bag of them!  WOO!

They didn’t end up taking many of them, but any amount of credit is nice, since there is always something I can find there, and when Kim initiates a trip to Yesterday’s Books, it means that she’s agreed to spend some money on books!  I’ll take that when I can get it.

I bought my first “The Saint” novel, by Leslie Charteris. Many of you have probably seen the movie, starring Val Kilmer. It was a good movie.  Some of you may have even seen the series, starring Roger Moore. Few of you have likely read the books, however. Obtaining and reading some of The Saint novels by Leslie Charteris has been a goal of mine for some time. I grabbed the only Saint novel they had. I feel special.

In addition to “The Saint”, a good espionage series that I’m sure most, if not all of you know is the James Bond series. The original James Bond novels were written by Ian Fleming, and were very excellent, if short, stories. After the death of Ian Fleming, John Gardener was licensed to continue the Bond Series.  His books do justice to the character of Bond, if they don’t contain the exact same sense of mystery that the original books do. I picked up a couple of John Gardener Bond Books: Licence to Kill (A novelization of the movie by the same name), Nobody Lives Forever, Brokenclaw, and Death is Forever. (I think those are the ones I purchased.)

Finally, I purchased a book I’ve been wanting to read, which was written by an author named Neal Stephenson. The book I’ve read by him is called Snow Crash, and is an excellent work of over-the-top cyberpunk! Well worth reading, if anyone is interested in that genre. There are a couple scenes in that particular book that are for over 15, I would say, but overall, it’s a very well-done book.  The book I purchased yesterday, however, is called Cryptonomicon, and I have really no idea what it is about. It’s one of those books that I’ve been wanting to buy for a couple years now, but never really had the opportunity. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Cryptonomicon, so I’m not expecting something absolutely stellar, but if it’s enjoyable, I’ll be sure to write something on here.

I think that was all I got, but I am very happy with the purchases.  There are several from a previous trip that I have not yet spoken about, nor have I read.  I’ll have to dig them up.  See, the problem is in a fundamental disagreement that I am having with my wife.  She doesn’t like having massive stacks of books on the headboard. I, on the other hand, LOVE having massive stacks of books on the headboard, as it’s what reminds me to read them.  Without that stack, I forget what books I’ve yet to read, and which books I’ve already read.  Many of my books are parts of series’, so it’s very difficult for me to remember, say, which James Bond books I’ve read, and which I’ve not.  Anyway, my new purchases have been put away already, which is sort of why I’m writing about them here! If I can refer back to this post, maybe I’ll actually be able to figure out which ones were new!

I’m looking forward to this weekend, as well, but I already wrote about what’s going on.  I’ll only add that Shawn, who forgot that Sacramento was not in the Bay Area, ended up being able to come to Kim and my house for the weekend, so he’s going to be able to participate after all!  :)  See you all on the flip side.

Address To A Haggis (in Scots) – Robert Burns

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn,
they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve,
Are bent lyke drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
“Bethankit!” ‘hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

The Translation

Fair is your honest happy face
Great chieftain of the pudding race
Above them all you take your place
Stomach, tripe or guts
Well are you worthy of a grace
As long as my arm

The groaning platter there you fill
Your buttocks like a distant hill
Your skewer would help to repair a mill
In time of need
While through your pores the juices emerge
Like amber beads

His knife having seen hard labour wipes
And cuts you up with great skill
Digging into your gushing insides bright
Like any ditch
And then oh what a glorious sight
Warm steaming, rich

Then spoon for spoon
They stretch and strive
Devil take the last man, on they drive
Until all their well swollen bellies
Are bent like drums
Then, the old gent most likely to rift (burp)
Be thanked, mumbles

Is there that over his French Ragout
Or olio that would sicken a pig
Or fricassee would make her vomit
With perfect disgust
Looks down with a sneering scornful opinion
On such a dinner

Poor devil, see him over his trash
As week as a withered rush (reed)
His spindle-shank a good whiplash
His clenched fist.the size of a nut.
Through a bloody flood and battle field to dash
Oh how unfit

But take note of the strong haggis fed Scot
The trembling earth resounds his tread
Clasped in his large fist a blade
He’ll make it whistle
And legs and arms and heads he will cut off
Like the tops of thistles

You powers who make mankind your care
And dish them out their meals
Old Scotland wants no watery food
That splashes in dishes
But if you wish her grateful prayer
Give her a haggis!

(((Spoilers here.  If you’ve not read the series, please do not read this post just yet!)))

I know there are plenty of authors that have jumped on the subject of whether or not Harry Potter is compatible with the Christian faith.  Most broad evangelicals believe that Harry Potter is actually harmful, which is a notion so absurd that I don’t have time to cover it in this article, but suffice it to say the magic in Harry Potter shares NOTHING with real-world magic except the name. Magic in Harry Potter is simply technology in a different form.  I mean, heck…you put your pizza in a box that makes it warm in a mere 30-45 seconds.  Such a contraption could very well be created by Arthur Weasley in his pursuit of learning about muggle devices. At any rate, the question before us is whether Harry Potter is a Christian book?

Well, as others have pointed out, the question is flawed.  What makes something Christian or not? Ultimately, the question that should be asked is whether the books are compatible with the Christian faith, and I feel that the answer has never been more “YES” than since the last book came out.

This article printed in the local paper this weekend, and I must say it does have a great deal of insight into the faith-based aspects of the ending of Harry Potter.
http://www.kansas.com/194/story/139479.html

Elements of the final chapters are very Christian, and quite allegorical to the life and actions of Christ. I’m not saying that’s what she’s always intended, or that’s the only possible meaning of what J.K. Rowling wrote. A mark of great literature is that an author’s writing has more meaning than he or she intended, I’ve said for many years. And the discussions that can and have been sparked by the themes and events that have transpired in the Harry Potter books have ranged far from what Rowling originally intended.  But especially after this last book has come out, it has become far easier to see the Christian allegory inherent in the story.  I’ll not go into details, but if you’ve read the last book, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The final chapters will not be enough to silence the Christians who hate the series, as the actual series has usually not even been read by its critics, so its contents are pretty much irrelevant to them, anyway. I’m not really trying to convince anyone.  The article I linked to above was a great read, and I recommend anyone who has read the series check it out. But if you’re one of the Christians who thinks Harry Potter is turning children into demon-worshiping hellions, I doubt it’ll do anything for you.

I must say that when I first picked up the Harry Potter series, I did not expect to like it as much as I have. Every book in the series has just gotten better…darker, to be sure, but better.

How much did I like it? I think I can honestly say that the Harry Potter series is one of the most masterfully written fantasy series I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I’ve read all of Robert Jordan’s thus far, most of George R. R. Martin’s thus far, all of Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the Hobbit and Silmarillion, and 3.5 books of Kate Elliot’s Crown of Stars series. (Among others.) All of what I have mentioned are excellent series’, believe me. Any or all of them would reward your time admirably. But none of them comes close to the quality of the 7 books of the Harry Potter series.

To begin with, J.K. Rowling started off the series intending to write 7 books and end there…which is exactly what she did! (gasp!) I think this makes her one of the few series authors in the history of the world who has done exactly what she set out to do. To be fair, her story format (1 book for each year at Hogwarts, the wizarding school) lends itself well to holding her to her 7 book promise. However, she could have broken some of the thicker books up into multiple books, and I doubt many people would have complained. That was never her intention, however, and she stuck to her guns.

The Characters in this book are some of the most interesting, fleshed-out characters I’ve ever read. She does such an excellent job of creating personalities with catchphrases, quirks, and flaws, that you often forget that these people aren’t real. In some places, she writes a line of dialog, and purely by the words they use, you have a pretty good idea of who is saying it.

Character development in this series is also handled well. These kids are in a time of their life where they’re growing and learning about themselves and the world around them, and Rowling handles it well.

But the meaning of the series, with its emphasis on love, sacrifice, and good triumphing over evil precisely because they have love, is what makes this series one of the greatest I’ve read. Very few series have brought me to tears, and Rowling has done that at several points throughout it.

It is for that reason that I am even more angry when Christians attack the series claiming ridiculous notions that it is turning children to wicca or what have you. Rowling has written a most stirring story of love; something that can truly be called a masterpiece, and all these people can do is baselessly attack it. Most of these people haven’t even read the series to verify any of their own claims, thinking that a demon will possess them or something. (Are we back in the Middle Ages, living in fear from vampires, werewolves, and demons that somehow manage to have sex with humans???)

If you have not read this series, I highly recommend that you do so. The first couple of books are quite whimsical, as befits a child being thrown into a magical world that he never knew existed. But the series gets darker as the events get darker, and I would say that after about book 3 or 4, it takes a child of a certain maturity level to get through it and understand the concepts therein presented. It is an amazing tale of love, sacrifice, friends, family, and the importance of doing right, and well worth reading.

I am reading a Barnes & Noble edition of this great work by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I must say that I rather enjoy this particular edition.  I also should mention that I’ve never actually had the pleasure of reading any Holmes stories, sadly.  I’m glad I’m getting into him now, actually.  His character really intrigues me.
The B&N editions of books have quite a bit of explanatory material at the beginning of these works, both of the author of the books as well as the characters’ place(s) in history.  In my preliminary reading for this novel, I came across the various inspirations for Conan Doyle’s character, Sherlock Holmes, and was intrigued.

Conan Doyle’s primary inspiration for Sherlock Holmes was a man named Dr. Joseph Bell.  From Dr. Bell, Holmes gets his amazing deductive powers.  I read in these materials an account Conan Doyle relates of Dr. Bell’s interaction with a patient and his students.  This is what he said:

In one of his best cases he said to a civilian patient: ‘Well, my man, you’ve served in the army.’ ‘Aye, Sir.’ ‘Not long discharged?’ ‘No, Sir.’ ‘A Highland regiment?’ ‘Aye, Sir.’ ‘A non-com officer?’ ‘Aye, sir.’ ‘Stationed at Barbados?’ ‘Aye, sir.’ ‘You see, gentlemen,’ he would explain, ‘the man was a respectful man but did not remove his hat. They do not in the army, but he would have learned civilian ways had he been long discharged. He has an air of authority and he is obviously Scottish. As to Barbados, his complaint is Elephantiasis, which is West Indian, and not British.’ – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Memories and Adventures, p. 330.

I loved every letter of this exchange of Dr. Bell’s, but it sounded familiar to me, somehow.  Almost as though I had heard Dr. Bell speak…in fact, I even had a particular gruff voice I was assigning to him in my head.  All of a sudden, I realized that Dr. Bell sounded eerily similar to Fox Network’s Dr. House of the show House, M.D.  In reading this, I realized that Dr. Joseph Bell could very well have been the inspiration for Dr. House.  I did some quick research and found that I was not far wrong, actually.  David Shore, creator of Dr. Gregory House, based House almost entirely upon Sherlock Holmes, and thus Dr. Joseph Bell is the inspiration for House.

You can read the connection on Wikipedia here. So far, I REALLY very much like the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Holmes could very well have been what I based my own intellectual pursuits on, had I actually known much of Holmes before now.  Holmes seeks to know about many different subjects, although we find that he has a very specific purpose in mind.  I, also, seek to know as much as I can about many different subjects, though I don’t have a specific goal in mind.  I just like to know things, and I dislike very intensely NOT knowing things.  :)

Anyway, if you’ve never read the Holmes novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I highly recommend getting your hands on some.  If you’ve never seen the show House, M.D, and you have a television set at home I also recommend that. I think it comes on Tuesdays at 9pm in California.  (Check local listings.)  Hugh Laurie does an excellent job…especially if you’ve seen Jeeves and Wooster.  Hugh Laurie played an excellent Bertie Wooster, I must say!  :)

Those of you who have read TheDow for any length of time know what a heavy emphasis I place on books. I love to read them, review them, re-read them, and possibly even re-re-read them! Equally important to me is good writing, for without the writing of good stories, where would we avid readers be? In the course of doing some work with a friend on an upcoming video game, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Eric Rhea of Rhea Studios. Eric has been toiling away on a concept he has titled the Work. The first glimpse into the Work is the commercially available The Red Regiment: Foundations (buy it at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com). This book is an exceedingly interesting tale of swords, sorcery, and yes…an undead dragon. Keep an eye out at Not So Famous (and Amazon.com) for a review of this new book.

It’s not often that I get a chance to interview the author of a good new fantasy novel…strike that, make it “never”. At any rate, Eric and I have worked on a couple of projects, and I was honored to be granted this exclusive interview to promote the first in what I personally hope will be a series of books detailing the exploits of the Red Regiment.

=================================

TheDow: Hi Eric. Thank you for joining me today.

Eric Rhea: I am honored to be here. Any chance I get to push words into people’s heads to grow the virus that is The Red Regiment … why, it just doesn’t get better than that!

TD: So, without getting too terribly off-topic, how does this project relate to Rhea Studios as a whole? Is this the pet-project of Rhea Studios, or is this just one of many balls you guys are juggling over there? Before we really start talking about TRR: Foundations, what is going on at Rhea Studios?

ER: The singular purpose of the Studio is to manifest the Work. The Work is a series of Arcs that carry forward a setting that mixes in elements and stories from people that I have met over many years. You might say it’s a kind of story telling tradition that not many people are aware of.

To that end, TRR is one of a handful of projects that the Studio is working on that are all components of what is known as the Work. We call it so many things that I settled on the Work just for lack of any other way to describe it. What am I doing all day?

“Working on the Work.”

You’d think me insane, if the phrase was not so terribly poetic.

Anyway, there are three things that the Studio is working on right now. First is the TRR series. Then, we have our game project. This game (http://www.wraiththegame.com) takes place in Arc 1, whereas TRR takes place in Arc 3. The third thing we do at the Studio is creative consulting and education. What we do is work with folks who are interested in learning tools of the trade to help promote the Work. It’s been a decade long affair working on this, but the Studio concept is fairly new. We celebrated our first successful year of operation at the ring of the New Year.

TD: The Arc concept is a very interesting one. How did you choose the
numbering scheme from Arc 1 through 3? Are they chronologically in order
from 1 to 3, or were they chosen for another reason?

ER: The time-based chronology holds true, which is a fancy way of saying that time moves in an expected fashion from Arc 1 through to Arc 3 in the sense that a character born in Arc 1 will become much older by Arc 2. The “arc” concept is relatively new, being born in late spring of last year when I sat with going through all these totes and binders trying to bring order to the chaos. Out of this, I created an Arc, which is simply an Act but filled with more information, events, and happenings.

Lastly, the Arc resolved one of the curious situations with the Work in that it enabled me to group storylines thematically. Arc 1 has a certain theme which evolves into Arc 2. Era is an okay word to use here, but whenever I see the word Era used in the context of fictional worlds these days I see a lot of vacuum in the sense that an author eludes to a potential, mythical era that might have existed. In the Work, stuff is already done. I just need the magic combination of time and resources to complete it. Consequently, the word ‘Arc’ conveys not only the idea of an ‘Act’, but also an ‘Ark’, which is intentional.

Do I have eras in the sense that I use the word?

Of course! :)

TD: So, how long have you been thinking and dreaming of bringing this particular project to fruition? Has this been a decade in the making? More?

ER: The concept of the Work began in 1992. I took over the walls of a quaint home that I was living in at the time and drew out what would become the basis of the much more ambitious epic that I would begin working on in 1994. It was through the help of many, many people over the years that helped to share and shape the story of what was to come. Then, in late 2005, when facing the prospect of two potential futures, I chose to make the Work a reality. I leveraged my entrepreneurial background as the vehicle to carry the Work forward and so far, everything is working according to Plan.

If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be here today.

That all said, I still continue to hold onto these acceptance letters for various publishing houses just the same. One can never be to sure about running a business. Or the dead. One can never be too sure about them.

Something wily about those folk living six feet under. Too quiet. That’s always the first sign of trouble. They’re down there plotting something big. Real big.

TD: Especially dragons and wizards, methinks! One of this novel’s greatest strengths is something that I feel is quite possibly the most important skill a writer can develop, and that is creating memorable characters. As a writer, do you see bits of yourself in each of the characters, or do you identify strongly with one or two, with the rest being standard archetypes (comic relief, sidekick, etc.) How did you go about creating these characters?

ER: In a pragmatic business sense, I put them to my demographic market through the simple act of sharing the story with them. So, through this I evaluated a cast of thousands. The ones that people remembered, or would ask questions about, or would draw up fan art for … why, those were the ones I kept as the means to carry the principle story forward.

Originating character ideas comes from many different places, not the least of which is writing them. Interestingly, there are several characters persisting since 1996. Included in that bag of characters are the Four of Legend, who we meet in The Red Regiment: Rescue.

Also, while many married, male authors would like to pretend their wives do not exist, mine does and she plays a significant and important role in both the Studio and in the manifestation of the Work. Understandably, she likes to keep out of the spotlight. So this one fleeting mention about the mysterious Wife is all my fans will see in this interview.

The fan favorites include Gregory Spade, Thisbe of Montague, and the Four of Legend. Gregory Spade is based on an idea given to me by Justin Rogers for a character that was the antithetical wizard. Thisbe originated out of Rebecca Rossiter who had an idea for a character with a twisted fascination for a particular color. The Four of Legend were born out of ideas from Nick Savini, Kevin Carmany, Joe Smith, and Brad Michaels. All of the characters were then contributed to by just a grand list of people over the years, in nearly every state in the continental stretch bound by I80 and various three inch binders that I carry with me as I travel.

TD: Gregory Spade is definitely my favorite character.  You just never know what he’ll come up with at any given time. Is there a great deal of background and history that you had to write before even coming to this novel? Is there a chance that you’ll release prequels, or will we learn the pertinent details in subsequent books?

ER: TRR:Foundations takes place in Arc 3 of the Work. The Work is at present two very large totes of writing, most of which is illegible since it is in my short hand. There are two jokes about bad writing, both of which involve my illegible short hand. The important thing I would like to convey about the stories, however, is that my intent by creating the Studio is to leverage it to tell these stories in formats that the media will allow. Arc 1 of the Work is titled Wraith and we are telling those stories through the format of a video game. Arc 3 of the work is The Red Regiment, which is the easiest point for me to write and also the easiest point, as I found over the years, for people to get into the series and whose story is told through the media of a book. One day I would like to do Arc 2, which is The Great War. However, I require resources that I do not yet have to accomplish that. One day and in time, I shall.

Shall there be books for all the Arcs? So long as I am living and of sane mind, there will be such attempts to do so. The Arcs are done. The books are not. My mind? Still mostly here, so looks like you’ll be hearing from and reading me again.

TD: The reason I asked the last question is that when reading this novel, I got the same sense I got with the Weis and Hickman Dragonlance novels. When you meet Greg and the others, you get the sense that much has already taken place, and it lends a sense of history to TRR: Foundations that you don’t get with “moment in time” novels. Were you going for something like that with this work?

ER: You nailed one of several reasons why I chose the third Arc to begin from. You’re entering a setting that was long established and so when you’re inside this world and exploring it, you don’t have to worry that if you look too deeply that you’ll find there’s a little gnome sitting behind the curtain controlling everything. I experienced that with a popular fiction author I was reading once. While the more poetic authors are quite able to whip up a fantasy story out of thin air, as a reader, you don’t want to know that. You want the book to be a bit more. That, incidentally, is how I approached it.

TD: That question lends itself neatly to your influences. I don’t know for sure, but I detected a hint of Weis and Hickman with the Dragonlance Trilogy for a continuation of an already elapsed legend. Many of Greg’s lines reminded me much of Douglas Adams’ writing. It really is part of the honor of being an author to pay homage to those greats who have come before us. So, who really influenced you in your formative years, and who have you continued to read up to today, fiction or nonfiction?

ER: When I set out to learn this whole writing thing, I was long a reader of fiction writing and so cemented this curious opinion about what mattered in writing was the dialog. After a certain number of fantasy books all describing the rolling grasslands of some other world, I began to roll my eyes. The dialog, however, always captured me in ways that I could not begin to describe for fear of giving this interview an ‘R’ rating. You may or many not find it surprising to know that my favored top three writers are Homer, Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, and Plato. That’s four, not three. Ah well.

TD: What was the first fantasy novel or series you remember reading, and what about it drew you to find more fantasy?

ER: There were three moments in my life where I read a book and went, “Wow, that affected me in some strange, sensible way.” So here goes.

One is a book whose author put forward this curious idea that a child could control a massive army in a struggle for the fate of humanity. Orson Card delivered with Ender’s Game in a way that just blew me away and was my first exposure to science fiction beyond what was shown on the television.

The boy’s conflict was a just war, as I understand it.

While in college it was a whim that took me into a course in political philosophy, which covered political philosophy from the Ancient Greeks on up to Augustine. Of those works, I will say that Plato opened up both the reason and the method for why I prefer dialog over expository prose: it gets inside the head and sticks there like bubble gum to hair.

Lastly, I spent my American share of time in front of the glow of television. You’ll find just as many influences in my writing from ideas presented in the movie theatre and on the TV. You’ll find arrangements based on inspiration from folks like George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg to whimsical stuff from folks like Seth MacFarlane, Blue Collar Comedy, and a little bit of everything in between. The television is a book. It gets inside your head in a similar way.

Admittedly, a book is a bit lighter to carry around with you than a 42” television.

TD: I wouldn’t mind having one of those to begin with! Are there other genres of escape that you enjoy?

ER: Don’t let it get around that I enjoy watching giant robots fight each other over rights to the universe. Something about that simple concept just touches me in a way that will probably be outlawed in the not so distant future.

TD: And I believe there’s more than meets the eye to that answer. How do you come up with a story like what you have begun in TRR: Foundations? Was there a moment in time that you can point to where you had the germ of the story created, and knew you could turn this into a series? Where did it all come from?

ER: The overall Arc and Master Work evolve as I come into new experiences and meet new, friendly faces. The seed starts out in a well lit coffee shop, where I am able to keep a lazy eye on the flow of people going from here to there, with rhyme and purpose.

Interestingly, it was a Russian real estate agent who had been living in the States for a few years who told me that I needed to quit making money and start making the stories I was telling him; something that he could buy in a book store.

At the time, I thought he was insane.

He told me that anyone could make money, but not anyone could make interesting places.

Three years later here I am, sitting here with you. Funny how things work out.

As for turning the third Arc into a series, it happened quite easily. I had a great deal of material at my disposal for the Arc itself, I took a small sliver of that and converted it into a form that would be intelligible to a wider range of people.

TD: Can you tell us about the world you have created with TRR: Foundations? What are the major political factions of the world, and are there any events that have really shaped the history of the world? (Without giving too much away, of course.)

ER: There are three groups of consequence at this stage. First, we have the Sudinese who live near the An’Kurakians just north of Lo’Ratio beyond the Cliffs. Second, we have Underwood. Underwood is an aggregation of many small towns and villages and so is recognized as a city-state, for those familiar with the concept. These two sides have held a cold war with one another for a hundred years with geography being the sole barrier to further confrontation. The undercurrents between these groups are the plots of the river city Azile, Port Galan, and the Village Nar. These are a handful of significant social politics that get mentioned here and there in the first book, but as we continue to explore the world we’ll come to know these places quite well.

An important note is that I apply a theory to the politic of the world where each factional side has their own interpretation of the history. So while what I told you is true, it is only true from the perspective of the people of Ghen, who have had their own issues with the nearby areas. It’s a subtle detail in plotting this project that adds a great deal of interesting dimension and several volumes of notes, late hours, and a lot of coffee.

I repeat: a lot of coffee.

TD: Ah, an element of reality to the fantasy. The history books are written by the governments under which you live, I guess. I asked earlier about the characters of TRR, and wondered how you came up with them. I wonder the same thing about the cities and places of your world. Are there real-world cities and places that you based some of your fictional settings on?

ER: TRR locations are built around real and fictional places depending on which village, town or major city settlement we’re talking about. The city of Underwood grew out of my experiences in Omaha, Nebraska and Chicago, Illinois, although the initial concept of the city is based on the city of Lafayette, Indiana. The town of Ghen is based on Iowa City, Iowa. The Village of Nar can be found in Florida and the seedier district of Underwood is less Omaha and Chicago and more New Orleans.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of very real world geography built into TRR and the overall Work. I’d mention a fictional city or two, but I don’t want to go to jail for mentioning the author or the place. While I’m sure the free time from distractions would serve the project well, the environment of cold concrete, iron bars, and loud, angry men wouldn’t be very conducive to the writing of engaging dialog.

TD: About the future of The Red Regiment: How many books do you foresee this series being? And what is your estimated release schedule? Sounds like an ambitious question, I know, but how many of us have waited and waited for an epic series to finish? Just wondering about your future plans for the series, and how often can we expect these books?

ER: George R. R. Martin is one of the more infamous authors when it comes to quality, shock value, and penning epics that one hopes to get finished in the author’s lifetime. The future of The Red Regiment is a bright one, but with purpose. Once the Arc is complete, the books will be done and I will at that time be free to move on to the next part of the Plan. The release schedule of these books, quantity, and when will all be decided by a mix of marketing, the editors, and the publisher. So, as you see, it is quite out of my hands at the moment.

TD: I am one of those people waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish. Robert Jordan is another who is notoriously tardy in his release schedule. When you come to the end of TRR: Foundations, it’s obvious that this book was never meant to stand alone. The demand this cliffhanger-style ending has generated has sort of even surprised you, I understand. Was this always the plan, or did you realize in the middle of writing it that you wouldn’t be able to get it all in one book?

ER: While writing the book, I took a fifty page treatment from the Arc itself and began expanding it. Then, when the book was rearing an ugly three hundred page monster, I cut it in half, again. The cuts were made because a book is something beyond the story that it contains that I have to place in context here. Foremost, a book is a product and so there was a lot of decision making on my part, and power to do so thanks to my Studio, to decide on things such as length, cover artwork, format of the presentation and even the paper size. Every detail in the book went through product testing with a very dedicated and wonderful group of people who helped to give me feedback over the course of well over a year.

As I wrote the story, I developed the product of the book because I knew that it needed to be something that could achieve much more than being just an interesting story: it had to be a passport into another world. So the artists and everyone with the Studio took a lot of care into crafting such a thing with our limited, back seat budget.

TD: How long have you been writing, and Is this the first book that’s made it to print?

ER: I’ve won various non-interesting awards for writing for many years and have several items in print beyond this series. Prior to entrepreneurship, I wrote several technical articles, short stories for newspapers, as well as articles for various game magazines. This is all to say that I wasn’t foreign with the writing and publication process.

The nature of this beast is definitely unlike anything I’ve ever done before.

You just don’t pen an epic without having done your years of homework, earned your dues, and met with hundreds of people to validate your thinking.

TD: Do you have any plans to release anything you’ve written in the past, or are there any other ideas you’ve been working on that you’d like to talk about? Anything in other genres?

ER: Thanks Chris. I would like to mention the Wraith project. The website for this project is www.wraiththegame.com. This video game is an interpretation of Arc 1 of the Master Work and is an adventurous and bold move by many talented people to bring together an online game. For an independent game company to produce this title, why, it really is quite amazing and I’m consistently amazed by the range of expertise people involved demonstrate to bring the idea to fruition.

TD: Anyone who reads this blog knows that they can expect something of a reference to morality or spirituality in it. Tolkien’s values influenced every aspect of his work to where he even had very stringent rules to which his storytelling had to conform regarding the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong. How influential is your morality or spirituality to your work? What are your thoughts concerning morality in literature? Is a clearly defined boundary between good an evil a good policy, or do you find that a certain amount of ambiguity is to be desired to keep readers thinking?

ER: I spent several years studying philosophy and religion. The tones are present, but this is one of those areas that I have learned best to not comment on.

I should note that a significant factor for my pursuit of the Work is a belief in God and facing my own untimely demise on three occasions in a single year. After the third time, I got the message. Thankfully, I’m not six feet under right now. While I’m sure the bingo parlor in the afterlife is quite nice, I’m just not ready for it.

TD: The Red Regiment: Foundations is a novel that surpassed my expectations. With a new fantasy novel, one never knows what to expect. I enjoyed the characters immensely, as I said, but I think one of the best things about these characters is their capacity for humor. In some places I actually laughed out loud, which I always enjoy. Is this lighthearted tone what we can expect for the rest of the series, or as things get more serious, will the overall feel get darker and more ominous?

ER: The Red Regiment and our other series will be places to escape into, enjoy and explore. There are a many books that take on the serious tone of the Perfect Epic. Buggar that! Open our books and get sucked into a world that’s just darn interesting. What more would you want?

TD: Well, Eric, you have written an excellent work. As I said earlier, I will be reviewing this novel on this blog, but I can comfortably say here that I am looking forward to the continuation of this saga.

ER: Thanks, Chris. As I told a reader who called me last weekend, the next book will be done just as soon as we understand how to handle what’s happening with the first one!

Other News:

Right now, the sequel to The Red Regiment: Foundations is going through the second phase edit, so with a little luck and a little blessing from high above, we’ll be out in the market by summer.